Shoreline City Manager's Report - week of 7-14-2014

From Shoreline City Manager Debbie Tarry

Update for Week of 7/14/2014

Council Meetings

July 14

·         Dinner Meeting: King County Rabies Vaccination Report. The City receives animal control services from Regional Animal Services of King County (RASKC). One of the underlying goals of the contract term is to increase revenue into the animal control system. Norm Alberg, Director of King County Records and Licensing Services Division (oversees RASKC), and Dr. Gene Mueller, Manager of RASKC, presented information about a potential mandatory rabies vaccination reporting program that can be used to assist in tracking whether animals have been appropriately licensed.

·         Regular Meeting

o   Appointment of Lauren Smith as a Youth Member to the Shoreline Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Board

o   Discussion of 2014 Development Code Amendments: The Planning Commission has reviewed a number of proposed Development Code Amendments and held a Public Hearing on the amendments on June 5, 2014. Most of the proposed Development Code amendments are “housekeeping” amendments, aimed at “cleaning up” the code and are more administrative in nature. There are a few amendments that could change policy direction including the Seattle Golf Club’s requested amendments to exempt golf courses from the clearing and grading provisions of the code and restricting a property owner from adding on to a home that is currently nonconforming to set backs without bringing the home into conformance with the Development Code. The Planning Commission recommended against the request from the Seattle Golf Club that was brought forward by the Planning Director and instead recommended a broader context in the future. The broader concept would be to develop language in the City’s code for Vegetation Management Plans and then work with applicants to develop plans that would meet the code requirements. This would be a work item requiring additional personnel and financial resources for professional service contracts. There may be merit in developing opportunities for Vegetation Management Plans, as this would alleviate the need for individual permits in applicable areas, but given current priorities it would require authorization for an additional dedicated staff person and budget for required professional services. Council is scheduled to adopt the Development Code amendments on August 11, 2014.

o   Public Defender Case Weighting Policy: In June of 2012, the Washington State Supreme Court adopted new standards for indigent defense. The standards allow for “case counting” and case weighting. Staff explained the new standards and provided recommendations for implementing the states mandated caseload limits.

July 21

·         No Dinner Meeting

·         Regular Meeting

o   Authorizing the City Manager to obligate $246,000 of Surface Transportation Program grant funds for the 145^th Street Route Development Plan.

o   Adoption of Ordinance No. 689 and 690: Concurrency and Impact Fees

o   Discussion of Sound Transit Long-Range Plan Comments: Sound Transit has released the Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) on the Regional Transit Long-Range Plan (LRP) Update. The LRP outlines Sound Transit’s vision for high-capacity transit (HCT) in the urban areas of Snohomish, King, and Pierce Counties. The projects, programs, and services identified in the LRP will be used to develop future ballot measures for voter approval, such as ST3. Staff has reviewed the Draft SEIS and prepared a preliminary comment letter, which was reviewed by Council at the meeting.

Ronald Wastewater District Assumption – Boundary Review Board (BRB)

Last week, the Snohomish County Council voted to invoke jurisdiction in King County in addition to invoking in Snohomish County. The reason Snohomish County invoked jurisdiction in King County is that even though our notice to the King County BRB stated that the notice applied to the portion of the RWD in King County, the legal description included the entire District, including the portion in unincorporated Snohomish County. This had been the direction that was provided by the BRB, but we provided an amendment to both the Snohomish County and King County BRBs that the notice to each respective Board was related to the part of the District that is under their jurisdiction. We provided clarification to Woodway, Olympic View Water and Sewer District, and Snohomish County. Olympic View Water and Sewer District also invoked jurisdiction in King and Snohomish counties.

North City Water District Annexations

During the development of the NCWD Water System Plan Update, NCWD discovered that there were a couple of areas in Shoreline and one in Lake Forest Park that were receiving water service from the District, but they had not been annexed to the District. There are several homes along 1^st Avenue NE east of I-5 from NE 167^th Street to NE 174^th Street that were not included in the petitions to annex to the water district in 1963 and 1967. The other area is Holyrood Cemetery and parcels west of 15^th Ave NE from NE 195^th Street to NE 190^th Street. This area has also been receiving service from NCWD since the 1960s, but has not been officially annexed into the District. The District will be working to correct this over the next several months.

Fireworks in Shoreline

On July 4, the Police received 44 calls for service related to fireworks with 18 requiring a response (26 were canceled). In addition to the 18 calls requiring a response, there were two on-views (police sightings) related to fireworks. These calls were settled as follows: 5 – by contact, 2 – citation issued, 1 – confiscation, 6 – unable to locate, 3 – warning given, and 1 – handled by phone. Excluding July 4, between July 1 and July 7 the police received 37 calls for service related to fireworks.

Financial Update

First Quarter Financial Report: Total General Fund revenue collections for the first quarter of 2014 were $4.7 million (13% of budget). This is $0.5 million above the first quarter of 2013, when revenues were 11.8% of the budget. General Fund departmental expenditures in the first quarter of 2014 totaled $4,249,192, representing 14% of the 2014 budget. Expenditures were 2.7% less than the year-to-date projections.

Hidden Lake Feasibility Study Update

On Tuesday, July 1, staff conducted the second public meeting for the Hidden Lake Feasibility Study. The study determined that the primary source of material filling the lake was from slope failure in the south fork of Boeing Creek and that attempts to stop subsequent slope instability would be relatively futile. At the meeting the project team was able to discuss the management challenges and technical information on the current state of the watershed. Next steps include: continue the survey until July 18, Parks Board site visit on July 24, and Council presentation on August 25.

Key Contacts from the past week

·         Intergovernmental Relations Manager Scott MacColl and I met with Snohomish County Executive John Lovick. The purpose of our visit was to ask the Executive to provide us direction on the process that the County would require in developing an Interlocal Agreement for future annexation of Point Wells, to identify who the County’s point person would be for that process, and how could we work collaboratively to initiate these discussions. Executive Lovick agreed to meet with Stephen Clifton (Executive Director) and Clay White (Snohomish County Planning Director) to discuss these issues and then to follow-up with us. We also discussed the Ronald Wastewater District Assumption and what that means.

·         I attended the Hillwood Neighborhood Ice Cream Social event. They had a great turnout and the weather was perfect! Some City staff and Councilmember Salomon also attended.

·         Tonight I met with the Library Board to thank them for their service and share my City Manager Vision.

June 27 – Meridian Avenue Accident

On Friday, June 27, a car lost control on Meridian between 198^th and 200^th. The vehicle was heading southbound on Meridian, lost control, drifted onto the west side sidewalk, ultimately wiping out a residential fence and striking a tree. Last week I received the accident report stating that alcohol and drugs were involved. The driver was taken to Harborview. I was informed on Wednesday that the driver passed away as a result of a drug overdose, not from any injuries incurred in the accident. Also, during the week of the accident, and for several weeks leading up to it, we received several complaints from a resident concerned about speeding on Meridian and cut-through traffic related to Aurora. Police have been monitoring Meridian and have not experienced many speeding vehicles and our traffic engineers have indicated that speed has not been an issue along the corridor and that the minor arterial is operating as it should. Also we have confirmed with our Aurora contractor that Meridian is not a haul route for the Aurora project. There may be a period in early 2015 when we begin work on 200^th in which there may be some impacts to Meridian as a result of the Aurora project, but this will be relatively short-term (two weeks) and there will be extensive communication with the neighborhood.

This and That

·         Business License Update: A total of 90 new licenses were issued with 34 being businesses located in Shoreline.

·         Aldercrest Demo: The Shoreline School District will be demolishing the old Aldercrest gymnasium and electrical building this summer. They hope to start the work in the next couple of weeks. There will be construction fences erected around those areas, but they will maintain access to the field area for the public.

Calendar Items

·         July 17, Kruckeberg Garden Foundation Event

·         July 30, Council of Neighborhood Leaders Picnic, 6:30-8:00 p.m., Shoreline Community College – Council is invited - please RSVP to Carolyn.